A comment on Harakahdaily’s Facebook page criticising the Malay royalties has prompted the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission to issue a letter demanding the PAS-owned news site to take action.

MCMC’s New Media Unit pointed out in the letter that the comment had breached Section 211 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

According to the section, a service provider or person using a content applications service shall not provide content which is “indecent, obscene, false, menacing, or offensive in character with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass any person”. Those convicted of this offence can be fined up to RM50,000 and/or a year’s imprisonment, with an additional RM1000 fine slapped for each day such content is left unremoved after conviction.

“As such, you are required to take note of the provision above and ensure your portal does not violate it,” the letter said, adding that it was keeping a watch on Harakahdaily so that “it does not breach the limits outlined and becomes a more healthy and ethical forum”.

The letter was referring to a comment on Harakahdaily’s Facebook page which posted the Malay-language news report “Itu pandangan saya sebagai rakyat biasa – Nizar” (That’s my opinion as a common citizen – Nizar), pertaining to the police investigation on former Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin over his Twitter remark lamenting wasteful expenditure.

Nizar had referred to the half-a-million ringgit spent on a car registration number during the bidding process organised by the Road Transport Department for favorite numbers under the series ‘WWW’.

The Sultan of Johor had paid RM520,000 for the number ‘WWW 1’.

The monarch’s son had been at the forefront of his father’s defence, saying the money belonged to the royal family and was not taken from the public.

Harakahdaily has removed the name of the commentator from its more than 238,000 fans. The daily updated site is among the top Malaysian news websites. -harakahdaily